Easter Tea Party

This week, at the last minute, we decided to host an Easter tea party complete with an egg hunt, coloring eggs, and baby chicks.  We are going away over spring break, but still wanted to do an egg hunt at our house with the kids AND the girls have been wanting to have a tea party with their friends, so...our Easter tea party was born (parties always seem to take on a life of their own at our house!).  I always think I will keep it simple, that it won't be a big deal (read~crazy last minute preparations) and somehow I always keep coming up with all of these ideas (read~trying to incorporate too much & driving myself crazy with last minute preparations!).  We made very simple invites and handed them out at school Monday & Wednesday and, surprisingly, I did very good not trying to do too much :)  

Parents magazine had some super cute ideas in their April issue and I always check Disney's website ( http://familyfun.go.com/  ) for ideas too. 

 I found these flowerpot cupcakes in the Kraft magazine for Spring 2012.

I mean, how seriously stinkin cute are these?!?!?!

 I found these Sweetheart Strawberry Tarts

there too :)   They truly are d-i-v-i-n-e!!

 I gave the recipe to three people at the party!    

We also had some yummy Cheery Chip Scones & Lemon Tea Muffins (Taste of Home recipes)

 that are wonderful with a cup of tea (or milk in the kids' case).

These adorable birds came from the Disney site.  I traced the template (nope~didn't even print it off) & used scrapbook paper I had laying around to make these (we I was on a serious budget for this party~my husband kept reminding me it wasn't in the budget!)   Then I thought "why not take this a step further?" and gathered some twigs that my kids had carried home from a walk, broke them up, and put them in this adorable little paint can thing (AC Moore) that a friend had given us at Christmas filled with cookies.  Add some shredded paper & ta-da :)  Cheap and cute decoration :)

The peep decoration idea came from parents, but I modified the materials to fit what I had.  They amazingly did NOT drop sugar all over my floor; of course I gave them a violent good shaking before I strung them up!

We followed the tea party with a crazy, chaotic round of egg coloring.  I really thought 2 egg kits, 2 egg spinners, some sand/glue, stickers, and 2 teenagers plus 3 parents helping would guarantee an orderly, relatively mess-free coloring session.  Ohhhhh how I underestimate children!   It was as mess-free and orderly as it could be with 6 children ages 5 and under I guess. 

While I was cleaning up (thank goodness for a plastic tablecloth and the ability to ball the mess up in it & throw it away!!) I had the teenagers hide the 92 eggs that we stuffed with candy, bubble rings & bouncy balls for the kids to find after they finished their eggs (which each kid took home with them in a carton cut in half, the top covered in scrapbook paper, with their names on it,  and tied with a bow).  Each kid also left with a goody bag filled with candy from the plastic eggs they found (although some kids ate as they found, so their bags were less than full & their tummies more than achey).

 A baby chick that made a surprise appearance during the party.  It was so adorable!  The kids were amazingly gentle and so in love with the chicks.  I'm sure every parent has heard the same thing I have since they left :"can we puh-leeeease get a baby chicky mom?!?!?!"